Programs

William J. Clancey - Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers

William J. Clancey

Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers

(Voyages of the Mars Rovers)

Sunday, August 26, 2:00 p.m.

Followed by conversation with Angie Coiro

New Venture Hall

$10.00 / $5.00 for members

William J. Clancey is Chief Scientist, Human-Centered Computing Intelligent Systems Division, NASA Ames Research Center and Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and Author of "Working on Mars: Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers"

For more than eight years, scientists have been doing fieldwork on Mars, the first overland investigation of another planet. Working through programmed robotic laboratories, called the Mars Exploration Rovers, they have a virtual experience of being on Mars. The “Spirit” and “Opportunity” teams have driven over 25 miles, taken thousands of photographs, analyzed the chemistry of the terrain, and inspected rocks by grinding them and taking microscopic images. How does working remotely through a robotic laboratory change the nature of field science? How does it change the scientists? A cognitive scientist with privileged access to mission operations, Clancey explains that the “robotic geologists” are not the rovers, but the scientists who have imaginatively projected themselves into the body of the machine.